As the nation’s share of the non-Hispanic white population decreased — and the number of Hispanic and Asian people grew, nearly every part of the country became more diverse. However, some spots in the country’s most populous states grew less diverse.
The Census Bureau’s measure of diversity is based on the probability that two randomly chosen people in a given place belong to different racial and ethnic groups. In a location where one racial group is 100% of the population that probability is 0%. That probability jumps to 50% where two groups make up exactly half of the population. The higher the probability, the higher the diversity for that location.
